Our Most Important Gift This Christmas

The prophet Malachi rebuked the people of Judah for the fact that they were not offering the best of their animals and possessions to the Lord. He said, “And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts” (Malachi 1:8). The student manual explains what was happening: “The priests and Levites of Malachi’s day were mocking God by offering sacrifices to the Lord with sick, blind, and lame animals and calling them acceptable (v. 8). They had no reverence for what they were doing…. They were selfish and worldly, and not one of them would kindle a fire on the hearth of the altar unless he were paid for it. The Lord had been insulted. The table on which the offering was made was polluted. The offering itself was ‘contemptible.’” They were not willing to give their best to the Lord—they would only offer the things they did not want anyway to Him. This is in stark contrast to David’s attitude when someone offered to give him something for free to sacrifice: “Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing” (2 Samuel 24:24). I love that attitude—what we give to the Lord should cost us something; it should be the best we have to offer and come at a price that we feel. If what we offer is like the white elephant gifts we do not want anyway, then there is indeed no power in our gift to the Lord.   

            Yesterday I asked my children what they would give to the Savior this Christmas. It is somewhat ironic that we spend so much time and energy giving each other gifts for Christmas in similitude to the wise men who gave the young Christ child gifts, and yet we do not think to give the Savior Himself a gift! We are normally embarrassed to show up at a birthday party without a gift for the person whose birthday is being celebrated, but that is how most of us show up to Christmas. Of course, giving to others and serving them are indeed gifts to Him, but I think it is probably rare that the presents we give each other are really done in a spirit of that kind of service. In answer to my question my four-year-old told me, “I can give Him all my love.” That indeed is a perfect answer, and certainly at this season we should focus on loving Him in thought, word, and deed. The prophet Amaleki gave us this invitation about what we can offer to the Lord, consistent with the spirit of my son’s answer: “And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved” (Omni 1:26). Ultimately He wants our whole souls so that He can turn us, eventually, into beings like Himself. As we think on Him more often, study His word more frequently, worship more consistently at church and in the temple, pray more fervently, and turn outward to love those around us more freely, we are giving our souls to Him. Surely our most important gift this season is the one we will give to Him, and we should be careful that what we have to offer is not equivalent to a blind, lame, and sick lamb like the Israelites of Malachi’s day.